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20 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site

Though WordPress is incredibly flexible and offers loads of
features, there is still a lot of room to improve basic and critical
functionality, and the best way to do so is with utility plugins.

With thousands of options available, however, it can be quite
difficult sorting the good from the not so good. In addition, you need to be very
selective when deciding on what kinds of plugins you want to use because each
plugin added to your site can decrease the load speed of your pages. More plugins also increase the likelihood of scripting conflicts.

WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress, formerly Visual Composer, is an easy-to-use
drag-and-drop page builder that will help you create any layout you desire quickly
and easily.

The page builder
comes bundled with two types of editors, a front-end editor and a back-end editor, so
that you can use your preferred method of working. That means you can create your WordPress website
with the back-end schematic editor or move your page building process to the front end and see your results live.

Other great features
include:

full control of
responsiveness

an intuitive drag-and-drop interface

video and parallax
backgrounds

multilingual enabled

and much more

User TenkaraGrasshopper
says:

“I love my WPBakery
plugin! Using this plugin makes editing and designing pages amazingly easy and
fun. And best of all you don't need to know any additional coding to make your
pages look great.”

Yellow Pencil is a WordPress CSS style editor
plugin which allows you to customise any theme quickly and easily by editing
it in real time. All you need to do is click on an element you want to modify, start
changing its features visually, and Yellow Pencil will create the required CSS
style codes in the background for you. The plugin provides over 50 style properties to help you modify your
site.

Other great features include:

over 500 fonts

300 backgrounds

a live colour picker

responsive support

and much more

User Rob33 says:

“Beautiful plugin,
opens up the world of CSS for lay people. So easy to use, intuitive, clear and
well designed, needs no support. Very safe purchase if you were thinking
about it.”

Ever dreamed of having a robot that could blog for you at
any time of the day or night? Well, Scrapes have heard your prayers. The plugin automatically copies content from any
area of the web you choose straight to your WordPress website, in effect
creating a system of auto-blogging for you.

You can program the plugin to copy content once or at chosen time intervals from a single
webpage or from several pages. It can copy content as varied as weather
forecasts, the latest news items, blog and magazine posts, and videos.

Other great features
include:

flexible text and
visual formatting options for copied content

access your
dashboard from any device

autoblog content
with any language character set

and much more

User DTrance says:

“A very good and
user-friendly scraping plugin for WordPress. The UI was designed for
non-techies which makes it easy to set up for anyone.”

Hide My WP is a security plugin that hides the fact you’re using WordPress
on your site, which allows you to fly under the radar of attackers that target
WordPress sites.

In addition, their Intrusion
Detection system automatically monitors the site and finds potentially
dangerous requests. It then provides you with all details of the attacker
like who they are, where they’re located, how they’re trying to hack your site,
etc., and suggests whether they should be blocked or not.

Other great features
include:

easily replace any
words in your HTML output file

easily change or
hide any URL

notify you when
someone is poking around your WordPress site

change
default WordPress email sender

and much more

HelloMandie says:

“If you are serious
about WordPress development, you need to have an excellent security plugin. Not
only is this one of the best out there, but their customer support is
fantastic. When I had issues with my setup, they were quick to help and got it
resolved in a matter of hours.”

If you’re looking for a better search function than the
native one WordPress provides, check out Ajax Search Pro. It's a live search engine plugin
for WordPress that provides users with customisable front-end settings.

For
example, by checking different boxes, the user can change the behaviour of the
plugin to look for exact matches, include or exclude certain post types, categories, etc.

Other great features
include:

four built-in
layouts

image support

custom field filters

keyword highlighting

and much more

User Gundernak says:

“This is the best
search plugin on the market with the most customizable and multifunctional
search features and logics. You can create totally different search boxes in
your site structure, each with their own options.”

If you’ve ever dreamed of designing your own blog but don’t
have the necessary coding skills, Blog Designer PRO for WordPress may be the answer. Unlike the average blog
template, the plugin comes with 36 templates, all of which you can customise
extensively to suit your own design aesthetic.

Other great features
include:

fully responsive
blog templates

support of custom
post type

preview of blog
layout

and much more

User Cornelsen says:

“BlogDesigner Pro is
an easy-to-use tool that gives the WordPress Blog a modern and beautiful look.”

Using maps on your website is a great way to integrate
content with location, and the Interactive World Maps plugin is an ideal choice for doing so. The
plugin allows you to include maps in posts, pages, and even in the sidebar of your
site.

You can choose to
use a map of the entire world, a continent, a country, a region, or a city. You
can also add active colour regions to the map and display them in two different
ways, as regions and as markers.

Other great features
include:

ability to add
interactivity

change background
colour

change the width and
height of the map

and much more

User AdamNewton
says:

“Really great,
powerful plugin. I'm using it for a very complex project and it's done
everything that I wanted and more. Support is great with quick and detailed responses
from plugin author​ and also lots of documentation.”

If the Interactive
World Maps above isn’t quite what you were looking for, then Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress offers another viable option. This is a
great plugin for displaying multiple posts, pages or custom posts on a single
Google map. You can assign a location to your post easily using the meta box or
your own custom fields.

Maintenance PRO is the big brother of the popular and free
Maintenance WordPress plugin. The pro version does everything the basic version
does but takes its functions to a whole new level.

This is a handy
plugin to use when developing a new site as it provides you with a customisable
maintenance mode splash page so that you can give visitors a taste of what they
can be looking forward to when your site is up and running.

Maintenance Pro is
also great for when you’re making significant changes to your existing site and
need to take it offline for a period of time. One of the plugin's standout
features is that it allows you to add email subscription fields so you can
start collecting email subscriptions even before your site is completed.

Other great features
include:

full-screen HD background
gallery

customisable text
and branding

unique scheduler
countdown

social media icons

and much more

User Jkaayy says:

“After working with
the basic Maintenance plugin for a while, I decided it was time to take the
next step with Maintenance PRO which is absolutely great if you're looking to
reach an entirely different magnitude of customization that comes with it. If
you're in the market for an easy customization of your "503 Error"
page, the Maintenance (and Maintenance PRO) plugin is set to be your perfect
match.”

Super
Store Finder for WordPress is a great plugin for businesses who want to
help their website visitors and potential customers find their stores easily and
quickly. The plugin is integrated with Google Maps API v3 and has a fully responsive
design for smartphones, tablets, and touch-screen devices.

Other great features
include:

multiple store
locator layouts to choose from

manages unlimited
store locations

full-screen street
view feature

extensive map
settings to show all stores, specific location, or geo location

and much more

User MastroMicio says:

“We've used Super
Store Finder on a couple occasions now and we're very happy with it. The
support is also excellent. This is very robust locator plugin that also has
extensions to add-on. We couldn't be happier and will continue buying the
plugin for all new customers that need it.”

The translation bar sits
at the top of the website by default, but you can use the custom positioning
settings to place it wherever you want. The plugin can translate as many as 91
languages and remembers a visitor’s selected language.

Other great features
include:

over 80 settings for customisation available

display languages, flags with names, just names, or just
flags

translate everything or selected sections of a web page

can exclude entire pages, posts, and categories

and much more

User StrictlyKash says:

“Fantastic plugin, works straight out of the box. Very easy
to setup and customize to my liking. Overall I'm very satisfied with my
purchase, if you need a translation plugin, then look no further!”

Cornerstone is a front-end WordPress page builder that allows you to see the changes
you make to your site in real time as you build it. One of the great features
of this plugin is Skeleton Mode, which allows you to see the underlying
structure of your entire page without leaving the front-end interface.

Other great features
include:

huge library of ready-made and customisable elements

text editing on the fly

compatible with any WordPress theme

and much more

User Webulosity says:

“Cornerstone is our professional choice over and above all
other WP page building solutions. It works for us in designing and allows us to
transition clients to self managing their content.”

Use the Awesome Header plugin to create sticky navigation and/or
replace your WordPress header entirely. This highly customisable plugin enables
you to have up to three layers of navigation and unlimited colour choices, and it's very
easy to configure and use.

The Filetrip plugin makes it easy to distribute files directly from your WordPress
site as it allows your website visitors and clients to easily download any
digital file from your website to Dropbox, Google Drive, or another cloud
service.

You can also
program the plugin to automatically send copies of files uploaded by users to
multiple destinations.

Other great features
include:

automatic email
notification for uploads and backups

ability to schedule
full backup for your website

convert media files
into transferable files

and much more

User Tuxton33 says:

“Initially it was pretty confusing to set up because I had
no previous experience setting a Google App and so on but the developer himself
walked the whole process with me and we got it working correctly... it was a
BIG surprise for me and I'm glad I purchased the plugin, it's exactly what I
need for my business”

White Label Branding for WordPress allows developers more latitude in customising
WordPress menus. The plugin allows you to customise the WordPress admin and the
login screen and add a Role and Capability Manager, which allows you to create
new user roles and assign capabilities and decide who has access to what
features of the site.

Other great features
include:

ability to add your
own favicon easily

hide certain screen
options

add a private
dashboard metabox for editors or administrators eyes only

and much more

User Migstf says:

“I've been using this plugin for some time, and realised
I've never left a review. It might be true that there are other plugins that
have the same feature list, but none do it as well or as easily as WLB. The developer
is also really responsive with issues (although there aren't many!).”

The Ultimate
Author Box plugin is a great way to
celebrate the authors who write for your blog. The plugin allows you to add an
author box to each post to identify the author and provide additional
information about them.

You can add extra
tabs to highlight the author’s other posts, social feeds, or other custom
content like a contact form. The plugin
comes with over 19 predesigned author box templates.

Other great features
include:

ability to set role
restrictions for author boxes

over 20 social media
profiles

author summary in
pop-up display

unlimited custom
colour scheme customisation options

and much more

User PedroVivo says:

“This is a really good plugin if you want to add an author
box to your blog. You can customise it and customer service is excellent in
case you have a problem or have any query about the product.”

Use WP Contacts to manage, log, track
and share your contacts on any page of your site you choose. The plugin
facilitates front-end login, and the contact database is highly customisable.

Other great features include:

drag and drop function

responsive and
ready for all of your devices

ability to multi-select and delete entries

and much more

User Cavtec says:

“This really is the database you are looking for! It is so
versatile and flexible that it can fit almost any situation. The support of the
plugin is also worth a mention. Prompt, detailed and not condescending.”

Custom
Page Templates allows you to override your theme design and create a unique page template for your WordPress
website. The plugin has an enormous amount of flexibility and gives you
complete freedom to control precisely where and when your changes will be
applied.

Other great features
include:

over 30 shortcodes

ability to work with
any plugin

support for popular
plugins like Visual Composer, WooCommerce, etc.

and much more

User Fearless_Mode says:

“This plugin is extremely well thought out. Definitely one
of my favorite purchases of all-time. The options available from the
"Dynamic Values" is like candy to a developer or someone who just
really wants to override the theme's templates in the most fun, transferrable
way. Support was superb and direct.”

Want to share
photos, videos, or other files with your customers, clients, friends, and fans
directly from your website without eating up your bandwidth? Say hello to Out-of-the-Box, a Dropbox integration plugin for WordPress
that allows you to display your Dropbox files on your website. This responsive
plugin is also multilingual ready.

Other great features
include:

audio and video
players

smart loading to
save time and bandwidth

ability to search
files by name or contents

and much more

User JRichardson47 says:

“This is a great plugin. The design looks good, it has many
useful features and it's easy to implement. But where they really won me was
with their excellent support.”

Reviewer WordPress Plugin offers you a great way for visitors,
customers and clients to leave reviews on your site. What’s more, the plugin
also allows you to add comparison tables inside your WordPress blog posts,
pages, and custom posts.

Reviewer WordPress
plugin offers a good range of customisable themes so that you can adapt your
reviews and comparison tables to fit your site, and each theme has a responsive
layout to adapt to any devices.

Other great features
include:

review box and user
review widgets

three different rating modes

ability to collect visitor name and email

Google ReCaptcha for preventing spamming

and much more

User TheoMill says:

“Reviewer plugin is a nice tool to add customer reviews to
your WordPress website. It's easy to set up and has good review management
options. A special word for the customer support: I ran into a plugin compatibility issue and the author was available within a short time to help and fix it."

Conclusion

These 20 plugins just scratch the surface of page layout
plugins available at Envato
Market. So if none of them catch your fancy, there are plenty of other
great options there to hold your interest.

And if you want to improve your skills building WordPress
sites, check out the ever so useful free
WordPress tutorials we have on offer.